The Ink Cloud Reader

Kit Fan

From Shelf: The Forward poetry Prize Shortlists and winners

Kit Fan (winner of the Hong Kong University International Poetry Prize) explores illness, mortality and gay marriage, set against the larger chaos of Hong Kong and our broken planet.

Shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2023. Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2023. A The Irish Times Book of the Year. In his disquieting third collection The Ink Cloud Reader, Kit Fan takes enormous risks linguistically, formally and visually to process the news of a sudden illness and the threat of mortality, set against the larger chaos of his beloved city Hong Kong and our broken planet. These shape-shifting poems are sensitive to anxiety and to beauty, questioning the turbulent climate of our time while celebrating the power of ink - of reading and writing.